GOP to Mitt Romney: Own your Mormonism

Mitt Romney’s Mormon faith has hovered over his 20-year political career like a thick layer of incense at Easter Mass. Negative perceptions of the religion so worried his 2008 presidential team that the dilemma had its own acronym in campaign power point presentations: TMT (That Mormon Thing).

Worries persisted this year as skeptical evangelical Christians flocked to other candidates—any other candidate it seemed — causing Romney to avoid all things Mormon in public.

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Mitt: Not a spokesman - 2011

Ducks faith question - 2012

But now that the former Massachusetts governor is the likely GOP nominee, many Republicans think that the standoffish candidate actually needs to embrace his Mormonism publicly to open a window into his life.

Even some Christian conservatives who never thought they could vote for a Mormon are relaxing their opposition, as they see the alternative as…. well, a living hell.

“I will support anyone against this president,” said Penny Young Nance, president of the advocacy group, Concerned Women of America, and who was a Rick Santorum supporter.

Nance maintains that if voters could see Romney worshiping, and observe him as a leader of his church, it could go a long way in helping people connect with him. “His religion isn’t the issue- he’s the issue,” says Nance. “At some point you need to be honest about who you are. He has an authenticity problem. People don’t get him. They don’t feel that they know the guy.”

Conservative activist L. Brent Bozell hasn’t endorsed a presidential candidate but admittedly favored the more conservative players in the race over Romney. Still, he sees no reason for Romney to hide his light under a bushel. “If you’re a Mormon, you don’t need to distance yourself from it,” says Bozell. “We can all get along. I think the hostility seen in the primaries toward him was based more on cultural issues—social issues, not religious.”

But not entirely: Romney experienced pushback this year from evangelicals who view the Mormon faith as at odds with the historic Christian doctrine of the Trinity. They question whether Mormons even believe in Jesus Christ –even though the official name of the religion is the Church of Jesus Christ Latter Day Saints. One prominent Texas cleric who supported Rick Perry called the church a “cult.”

“What I find disturbing,” said one Romney adviser who asked for anonymity, “are the exits polls where people said they could only vote for someone who shared their religious faith.” According to this adviser and others, Christian conservatives feel that electing a Mormon president would further legitimatize the lay religion founded nearly 200 years ago, when many of them see it as a false religion.

Penny Benson and Molly Maimone, Ohio Christians, are among those dubious voters. “I don’t know what Romney believes… If it was between Romney and Obama, I don’t think I could morally vote,” said Maimone, before that state’s primary earlier this year. Benson concurred, noting “My religious beliefs dictate my political beliefs. Romney is not an option for me.”

Romney doesn't get it... he's not going to beat Obama. The only remarkable thing about him is that he is a Mormon topping the GOP ticket in 2012. He might as well use this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to discuss the Mormon faith, because it's not like he's actually going to win the Presidency.

Jesus Christ preached love whereas as conservatives preach hate. Jesus didn't care about authority. And he didn't fear people who were different than him. He certainly didn't care about rich people and protecting their money.

Finally, while Christians believe that they will stand before God dressed in the spotless robes of Christ’s righteousness, Mormons contend that they will appear before heavenly Father dressed in fig-leaf aprons holding good works in their hands. According to the Latter-day Saints, virtually everyone qualifies for heaven. Murderers, unrepentant whoremongers and the world’s vilest people make it into the Telestial heaven; lukewarm Mormons, religious people, and those who accept the Mormon gospel in the spirit world typically enter the Terrestrial heaven; and temple Mormons make it to the Celestial heaven. Only those who are sealed in secret temple rituals, however, will make it to the third level of the Celestial kingdom, become God’s of their own planets.

These and many other doctrinal perversions exclude Mormonism from rightly being called Christian.

fyi Team Politico/Obama ..............America is a "melting pot" for different religious and cultures.

It's really time for Libera/progressives to start warming up to that concept........

What's next a story? Mitt release twenty years of tax returns?..........

On Tuesday night November 6th,2012 let's put an end to the "hate and divide" that is coming from the Obama/Biden Administration and their pals in our broken MSM press and let's elect a president that is going to move ALL of America forward together..........

Romney/Rubio.................time to put this nonsense behind us and focus on REAL issues, and it ain't Mitt's religion.

Nice bio Lois..................you'r a real elite liberal/progressive Journolist who has lived in a "Deep blue bubble".......:

Lois Romano

Lois Romano is a senior political writer for POLITICO, covering the 2012 presidential election.

A veteran political reporter, Ms. Romano started covering the campaign this year for Newsweek/DailyBeast. Prior to Newsweek, she was a political reporter for The Washington Post’s National staff. During her 28-year tenure at the Post, she profiled national leaders, covered politics, policy and business and wrote a daily column. Her in-depth interviews –for both print and video-- have included members of Congress, senior administration officials, presidential candidates and business executives, and have allowed her to develop wide contacts and long-standing relationships with leaders throughout Washington during five administrations. She has covered eight presidential campaigns.

In 2009, she was a resident media fellow at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University in Palo Alto, Calif. In spring 2008, Ms. Romano was a fellow at the Institute of Politics at Harvard University, where she taught a popular study group on the U.S. presidential election.

At The Washington Post, Ms. Romano pioneered some of the paper’s most successful ventures over the years--both editorially and financially. In 1992, she developed, designed, reported and edited the Post's then-new daily personality column, The Reliable Source, which remains one of the best-read features in the paper today. In 2009, Ms. Romano developed and produced the paper’s first online video series, “The Obama Era: Voices of Power,” which featured interviews with top Obama officials and other influential policymakers. "

.................Maybe Lois would like to be Obama's Press Secretary if he's get Re-installed in November..................

Doing a new Etch-a-Sketch of "Romney the Mormon Man" isn't going to fly, as everyone will be wondering why he did NOT publicly embrace his religion up until this point? As Nance correctly points out, Mitt Romney has an AUTHENTICITY problem, and that problem will only be 'highlighted' if he suddenly changes his position and publicly embraces the Mormon Faith.

members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Days believe in the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost as three. Many other Christian churchs today have also rejected Constantine's belief of 3 in 1. No one comes unto the Father except through his Son.